Incremental Livable - An A\J Q&A with Gordon Harris

By District Energy posted 11-12-2018 00:00

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Alternatives Journal

Summary

What happens when a group of urban planners attempt to create a living model of a walkable, energy-efficient and sustainable community at a scale applicable to the country’s largest cities?

You get UniverCity, a groundbreaking initiative of urban planner Gordon Harris to rethink how we work together, piece-by-piece, to solve some of the city’s most complex sustainability issues.

And, as he’s shown, make money doing it.

Harris is an award-winning urban planner working with Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. He provides land-use planning and development advice around the world, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, China, Bosnia and Guatemala. Harris is also a fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

He spoke recently with A\J’s editor-in-chief, Andrew Reeves, to talk about Building Community: Defining, Designing, Developing UniverCity, his book on how 20 hectares of land atop Burnaby Mountain has become one of the world’s most livable communities.